News: Funding boost for £4m AMRC scale-up programme
A £4m project intended to support the development of knowledge and innovation-rich start-ups, spinouts and future scale-up businesses in South Yorkshire, has secured a £2m grant.
Earlier this year, the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) launched AMRC Scale-up, a programme designed to help high-growth deep tech companies scale manufacturing in defence, aerospace and energy. This followed on from FerretWorks - a Yorkshire slant on SkunkWorks - with the approach at the AMRC formed to incubate high risk/high reward ideas.
The AMRC has grown to become a world leader in manufacturing excellence, part of the national High Value Manufacturing Catapult network of research centres. With facilities in Rotherham and Sheffield it has more than 500 highly qualified researchers and engineers working on the manufacturing needs of the future, from composites to castings, additive manufacturing to machining.
The board at the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) has now approved a £2m grant to build on the 2025/26 pilot year.
Using a total of £4m over the next four years, the project is primarily a revenue-funded business support / innovation programme, delivered through AMRC facilities and partner commercialisation routes. It will operate though FerretWorks and AMRC Start-Up, expanding The AMRC’s reach to support both university-led ventures and external founders, positioning AMRC as a central hub for manufacturing innovation and entrepreneurship.
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A SYMCA paper explains: "The programme builds on the success of the SYMCA-funded FerretWorks Start-Up pilot, creating a structured pathway to accelerate innovation, commercialisation, and business growth across South Yorkshire. It provides specialist manufacturing support to ventures emerging from the University of Sheffield Commercialisation Journey, while also attracting high-quality external entrepreneurs through strategic partnerships with organisations such as the Royal Academy of Engineering and Sheffield Technology Parks."
The programme aims to increase IP generation and commercialisation outcomes, attract and retain high-quality founders in South Yorkshire, strengthen the regional innovation ecosystem, support the creation of sustainable, high-growth businesses, and enhance collaboration between academia, industry, and external partners.
The report adds: "Ultimately, the programme will act as a feeder for the next generation of scale-up companies, driving long-term economic growth and delivering tangible societal benefit across the region."
Cllr. Chris Read, leader of Rotherham Council and deputy mayor for South Yorkshire, said: "This bit about how you move from big scale academic activity into wealth-producing, growth-driving, start-up activity is incredibly important, and generally not cracked across the country. It seems to me to be the right sort of space that we [SYMCA] should be in to try an mitigate some of those risks and create those pathways and make that normal behaviour for people.
"We have got this great asset in The AMRC, and being able to maximise the commercial opportunities coming out of that seems to particularly important, so I welcome the scheme."
AMRC website
Images: AMRC
Earlier this year, the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) launched AMRC Scale-up, a programme designed to help high-growth deep tech companies scale manufacturing in defence, aerospace and energy. This followed on from FerretWorks - a Yorkshire slant on SkunkWorks - with the approach at the AMRC formed to incubate high risk/high reward ideas.
The AMRC has grown to become a world leader in manufacturing excellence, part of the national High Value Manufacturing Catapult network of research centres. With facilities in Rotherham and Sheffield it has more than 500 highly qualified researchers and engineers working on the manufacturing needs of the future, from composites to castings, additive manufacturing to machining.
The board at the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) has now approved a £2m grant to build on the 2025/26 pilot year.
Using a total of £4m over the next four years, the project is primarily a revenue-funded business support / innovation programme, delivered through AMRC facilities and partner commercialisation routes. It will operate though FerretWorks and AMRC Start-Up, expanding The AMRC’s reach to support both university-led ventures and external founders, positioning AMRC as a central hub for manufacturing innovation and entrepreneurship.
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A SYMCA paper explains: "The programme builds on the success of the SYMCA-funded FerretWorks Start-Up pilot, creating a structured pathway to accelerate innovation, commercialisation, and business growth across South Yorkshire. It provides specialist manufacturing support to ventures emerging from the University of Sheffield Commercialisation Journey, while also attracting high-quality external entrepreneurs through strategic partnerships with organisations such as the Royal Academy of Engineering and Sheffield Technology Parks."
The programme aims to increase IP generation and commercialisation outcomes, attract and retain high-quality founders in South Yorkshire, strengthen the regional innovation ecosystem, support the creation of sustainable, high-growth businesses, and enhance collaboration between academia, industry, and external partners.
The report adds: "Ultimately, the programme will act as a feeder for the next generation of scale-up companies, driving long-term economic growth and delivering tangible societal benefit across the region."
Cllr. Chris Read, leader of Rotherham Council and deputy mayor for South Yorkshire, said: "This bit about how you move from big scale academic activity into wealth-producing, growth-driving, start-up activity is incredibly important, and generally not cracked across the country. It seems to me to be the right sort of space that we [SYMCA] should be in to try an mitigate some of those risks and create those pathways and make that normal behaviour for people.
"We have got this great asset in The AMRC, and being able to maximise the commercial opportunities coming out of that seems to particularly important, so I welcome the scheme."
AMRC website
Images: AMRC
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